Kindergarten

[Seagull]

Hi, there!
Being an English teacher, I still have some doubts about the word you use to refer to teachers (male or female) working in kindergartens (by the way: why do you use a German word here?!). What's their job? Are they kindergarten teachers? What's the correct word, please? Many Portuguese students want to teach/prepare little children, as their future job, and I always have some difficulty in finding the correct word. Could you please teach me?!

Thanks a lot for answering!

Seagull

[Ouisch]

In the US, kindergarten is the year of school children attend before entering the first grade. Often kindergarten only lasts half a day or about three hours (as opposed to the other grades, which have classes all day). Children usually are five years old when they start kindergarten. The teacher is called a "teacher" and must have a degree and be certified just like any other school teacher. (Sometimes K teachers need specialized training, as they'll be working with very young children, which takes more patience and a different type of psychology.) Kindergartners mainly learn basic socialization skills, like how to play nicely with one another, how to share, how to sit still and listen to the teacher, etc. They also learn any basic life skills they haven't quite mastered yet, such as tying their shoes, buttoning buttons, etc. And some very rudimentary educational things are taught as well, such as the alphabet, the colors, numbers, their left from their right, things like that.

[queenbu]

In Malta they're called 'kindergarten assistants'.

[Anglika]

Kindergarten: 1852, from Ger., lit. "children's garden," from Kinder "children" (pl. of Kind "child") + Garten "garden". Coined 1840 by Friedrich Fröbel (1782-1852) in ref. to his method of developing intelligence in young children. Taken into Eng. untranslated, whereas other nations that borrowed the institution nativized the name (cf. Dan. börnehave, Modern Heb. gan yeladim, lit. "garden of children").

[BobK]

I haven't watched this yet, but other Teacher's TV programmes I've seen are often worth the time. It covers lots of related topics: Jonathan Dimbleby Big Debate - Too Much Too Young? | Teachers TV

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